Hi there!
 
I'm new to FML this summer, have been lurking since #1591.  Amazing what
I've learned in such a short time!  Thanks to everyone, especialy the vets,
for all this advice.
 
I have a little sable girl, two years old, named Tristan's Lady (but her
nickname is "Weezie").  She was given to me in November by someone who no
longer had time to take care of her.  I'd been wanting one for the longest
time, ever since I walked into a Kalispell pet store in 1980 and was allowed
to cuddle a kit!  Then, about five years ago, I was lucky enough to meet two
folks with a fuzzfamily of three, who all came to visit me one weekend.
They were stinky boys, but I loved them anyway (unfortunately, no one else
did-- the weasel perfume drove my housemates to distraction).  It was a long
time before circumstances permitted me to have a fuzzie of my own.
 
TL is a MF girl, raised on Purina cat chow.  She's quite tiny and petite--
just about one and a half pounds.  I switched her over to ANF (TamiAmi)
kitten food (she wouldn't TOUCH Kaytee Ferret food-- I think she dislikes
the texture).  She tends to sleep a LOT (what is normal for solitary
ferts?), usually in the closet, a dresser drawer, or under the desk in her
"cubby." She emerges every couple of hours to patrol the house & have a
snack.  Usually, in the morning and late evening, she gets into an active
play mode, and loves to play chase or hand-fight (sometimes she likes the
kitty tease).  The greatest thing about her is that she LOVES to cuddle, be
petted and held!  She follows me from room to room (since I got laid off,
I'm home all day) and plops down wherever I am, looking at me.  She's very
good, except for trying to stick her head into the fridge and dishwasher,
making the occasional unauthorized hazardous waste dump, and the dreadful
Great Escape the other day (another story!).  She's not too vocal-- she'll
occasionally dook at me when bed-surfing (I grab her lil' body and tickle
her), and she hisses when dragging away prey-- the kitty- tease toy (she
drags it under the bed, pole and all).  And I've heard the famous furious
chattering in "Ferretese" too... At the vet's, when getting her shots... and
once when I was trying to keep her from losing her balance, when she was
climbing into her " house", and I accidentally made her tip upside-down--
she was hanging there like an angry little bat, furiously chattering at me
because I made her lose her footing!
 
We're having a TERRIBLE flea problem right now.  I put her on Program a
couple of days ago, so I will let you know how it goes.  She's on the
smallest dose (brown pill/45 mg/under ten pounds) and I just mashed the pill
up in a mortar and gave it to her in Ferretvite.  From this point on, the
dosage is just one pill a month!  She doesn't have a lot of energy right
now, & seems lethargic, but she isn't anemic (the vet checked her for that).
I'm wondering if it's a response to the lufenuron in her system, or maybe
the weather (humid and warm).  The pyrethin flea products don't phase the
fleas in the least-- I've got a kitten-safe shampoo, a small animal spray,
and a mousse (from the vet's).  They seem to bother TL more than they do the
fleas!  So now I am flea-combing her about five times a day, coming up with
twenty at a shot.  My room-mate doesn't want to carpet spray or flea bomb,
but it's looking inevitable.  The effects of the Program, from what I've
been told, aren't apparent until a month or so after first treatment.  Since
she gets out of her house every morning & crawls in bed with me for a
morning nap, you can imagine what THAT's like!  (Ha, ha-- maybe I should
take Program too)
 
Sukie, I cried about Ruffle.  I have been following your notes.  I hope
you are doing OK.
 
Special hello to Stephanie, & blessed be to you and your ferret friends!
 
Thank you Dayna for the wonderful stories, especially the one about
the trucker.
 
MoBob, you crack me up.  I'm still laughing over the fert in your shorts.
 
PawPaw, I sure like your tales of Tater & Odie.  I think they should "jump
the broom" with Rosie & Maxie.  Whenever my Weezie sees the broom in my
hand, she goes all bushy-tailed.  She says I can give you OUR broom any old
time!
 
Love,
Isabel Two and Tristan's Lady ("Weezie")
[Posted in FML issue 1649]